Arlene from Israel: “Take a Deep Breath”

Arlene Kushner 25/12/2015Comments Off on Arlene from Israel: “Take a Deep Breath”817 Views

The good news today touches several different bases:

Credit: Indian Defense News.

The Ministry of Defense has announced that David’s Sling air defense system – designed to shoot down rockets with ranges of 100 to 200 km (63 to 125 miles), aircraft, or low flying cruise missiles – has passed its final round of tests and is scheduled to be deployed next year. Operators for the system are now being trained.

“It will fill the operational gap between the Iron Dome short-range rocket interceptor and the Arrow ballistic missile interceptor, both already in service.

“The three systems incorporate a network of radar-guided interceptors designed to shoot down everything from the low-flying, Katyusha-style rockets of Hezbollah and Palestinian guerrillas to the ballistic Shehab and Scud missiles of Iran and Syria.”

Four batteries of missiles will be deployed. They can be moved around, or stationed permanently. and they can operate independently, intercepting several projectiles at the same time, or can operate alongside the Iron Dome and Arrow.

”The Czech parliament passed a resolution [last] Thursday urging their government not to implement a European Union decision to label Israeli products exported from the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Golan Heights.

”Czech leaders denounced the EU resolution, with Czech media reports quoting Culture Minister Daniel Herman as saying in the parliamentary debate it was ‘absolutely necessary to reject the efforts to discriminate against the only democracy in the Middle East.’”

According to the 2015 UN Human Development Index (HDI), Israel was ranked 18th out of 188 countries world wide.

Scoring higher than Japan, Belgium, France, Spain and Italy, as well as all eastern European, Africa and Arab countries, Israel was categorized by the report as a county with “Very High Human Development.”

I don’t know that we can quite call this good news – for we would wish things were different. But it is in the sense that dangers are being exposed before we are committed to something that would not be in our best interest.

In the end, those warning against establishment of diplomatic normalcy between Israel and Turkey were correct. “Don’t trust the Islamists,” was the warning. Indeed. Consider:

It turns out that Hamas operative Saleh Al-Arouri – whom I mentioned in my last post as key – actually left Turkey months ago because of enormous pressure from the US and Israel. However, this does not mean that Hamas terror operations directed from inside of Turkey have ceased: A source in Hamas says that Turkish authorities have not imposed restrictions on Hamas activities and officials living in the country.

“We have yet to reach understandings, for one simple reason — we want to make sure there is no terrorist activity emanating from Turkey…We can’t compromise our security.” (Emphasis added)

The Israeli government would show itself very short-sighted and foolish indeed if a normalization pact were to be signed in the face of all of this. I trust it will not happen.

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credit: thisongoingwar.blogspot.com

Attack of the day. Or of yesterday, actually. This was a tough one: Two Palestinian Arab terrorists went on a rampage Wednesday afternoon, attempting to murder as many people as they could near the Jaffa Gate of the Old City of Jerusalem.

Security shot one terrorist dead and wounded the other. They have been identified as residents of Kalandia who had both served time in prison for terror-related activities.

One Israeli died of stab wounds. Another died of gunshot wounds aimed at the terrorists; all efforts to save him were futile. The remaining Israeli is in serious condition.

Twenty-five Palestinian Arabs who were part of a Hamas terror cell operating out of Abu Dis – which is right outside of Jerusalem – have been arrested for plans to carry out suicide bombings in Israel. Most of those arrested are students in the University of Abu Dis.

About a month ago, an explosive factory was discovered in Abu Dis; it provided chemicals for the manufacture of explosive devices. “…the defense establishment noted that the scope and quality of the explosives laboratory has not been seen in the West Bank in a long time, and it thus constitutes evidence of the intentions of Hamas in the area to join in on the attacks against Israel in an organized fashion…

“This is the most significant terrorist cell that has emerged during the last three months of terror attacks, most of which were carried out by lone terrorists.”

There have been reports that Hamas has decided to join the current “intifada,” and had put out orders to do suicide bombings. And here you are. Our lives are in the hands of our intelligence and security forces. This situation is proof-positive that there will be no Israeli withdrawal from Judea and Samaria: we need to have access to all of the area at all times.

The situation will not devolve into one such as we confronted at the height of the second intifada in 2000 – 2005. At that time, Israel had pulled back from areas of Arab population in order to allow the PA to administer them. With the violence, the IDF moved back in and then was able to quell the terrorism. Since then, we have retained the practice of moving everywhere for security purposes.

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Credit: Gil Yohanan. Ynet news.

Steel pillars are to be set in place in front of 300 bus stops in Jerusalem to prevent car rammings, the municipality has announced.

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credit: NYT

This is cute. Israeli Ambassador to the US decided that all of his holiday gifts this year would have a special meaning. They were all made in Judea and Samaria, and the Golan Heights, and included wine, olive oil, body cream and halvah.

“Of the over 200 unresolved territorial disputes around the world, Europe decided that only these Jewish-made products deserved to be labeled,” he wrote on Twitter.

“The main forces behind this movement are fanatics who actively seek to eliminate Israel. Unfortunately they are occasionally joined by fools who naively believe that in promoting BDS, they are advancing peace between Israelis and Palestinians. But regardless of why they support BDS, the fanatics and the fools are simply promoting a new antisemitism.”

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